Another characteristic of the industrial period was a sharp rise in population. 

A careful examination of available evidence, including records of burials and christenings, indicates that England and Wales in the early 18th century had a combined population of about five and half million people, and about six and a half million by 1750.

In 1801 the first census following the beginning of industrialization showed the population had grown to nearly nine million.  By the census of 1831 there were fourteen million.

Examination and analysis reveals that the actual birth rate in England was in fact relatively constant during this period.  Nor was the population being expanded (at this time) by large numbers of migrant workers from Ireland, Scandinavia, or the European continent.

In fact, during this time, Britain was actually exporting populations both to the rest of Europe, to the Americas, and to Australia!

To what then do we credit the large and sudden increase in the English population?

The answer can only be attributed to a dramatic decline in the death rate - but why were more people suddenly able to survive?

As we have already noted, more land was being privatized and put into active cultivation.  As a result, more and better food supplies became available, and the new purchasing power of the lower classes resulting from the jobs created by industrialization meant that more people could afford to buy more of the food produced.

This growth in affluence also led to improved sanitation methods in the cities and towns, removing some of the worst sources of plague and contagion. 

As more jobs became available at higher and higher wages, adequate clothing, shelter, and food became increasingly available to those who had in previous generations done without.

The decline in the death rate among children is particularly noteworthy.  Children are generally the first to suffer when privation and disease are prevalent.

Of particular interest and significance here is the fact that the survival rate of children improved primarily and the most among those populations of children fortunate enough to find employment in the new mills and factories - quite contrary to claims of modern social reformers that such factories degraded and shortened the lives of children in those areas.

Go to next lesson ...>>